In which Blaine and Kurt end up despising each other, helping each other, and falling in love with each other, all under the backdrop of the magical school we all love.

A few days after Christmas, they wake up in a mess of limbs again, and Blaine pretends that he doesn't notice when Kurt's lips press unintentionally into the back of his neck.

He pretends that his skin doesn't feel like its on fire when Kurt's hand somehow ends up smoothing across the panes of his stomach in sleep, or when he can feel every inch of the boy pressed against him from behind.

He feels almost like he's going to explode from the intensity of emotions that's building inside him, the tension of absolutely needing to touch him, so he inches as carefully he can away from Kurt's dangerous fingers and slips out of the warm bed and into the cool morning air that was filtering into his bedroom from the cracked window.

He rubs a hand through his curly hair as he slides soundlessly into the bathroom, the door closing behind him silently. When he rests his palms on the sink and glances upward into the mirror, he tells himself to get a grip.

"Kurt loves Finn. Kurt loves Finn. Kurt loves Finn," He murmurs quietly, noticing the way his own lips were unpersuasive, even to himself. "It's all pretend, it's all pretend, it's all –"

"Blaine?"

One of his palms slip; he catches himself at the last moment. "Yeah?"

"Are you almost done? I have to pee so badly."

"Oh." When he opens the door, he gets an eyeful of messy, sexy hair and bright, colorful irises. Kurt's probably too tired to notice him staring, but he forces himself to look away anyway. "Sorry."

"Is'fine." The Slytherin mumbles out as he stumbles pass Blaine, rubbing his beautiful eyes as he goes, and the door shuts with a sharp snap behind him. The shorter boy rests on the edge of his bed and plays with the bottom of his tee shirt as he waits patiently, and starts to fall back behind the wall he created to separate himself from his feelings for his fake boyfriend. When Kurt opens the door again, his hair is under control again and his eyes look wider, brighter.

Blaine swallows. "Sleep well?"

Kurt glances at him, something in his eyes shifting, and then sits carefully down beside him. "Well enough. What's on the schedule today?"

"My mother likes to have a New Year's party. They'll be a few people coming, but nothing to worry about, really." He says, lifting one shoulder and trying not to stare as Kurt smoothes a hand over his tee shirt.

"Sounds good."

And then they go about the morning purposefully dancing around each other, avoiding each other's eyes as though they both knew they'd find something inside them that they didn't want to.

So Kurt ignores the way Blaine's shirt rides up as he helps his mother take down Christmas lights, Blaine ignores the way Kurt's jeans are tighter than spandex shorts. Kurt ignores it when Blaine's fingers skim across his lower back when he teeters unstably on the ladder as he plucks the angel off the top of the tree, and Blaine ignores it when Kurt grabs him by the hips to pull him out of the way as Mrs. Anderson accidently drops a glass ornament.

Mostly, though, they can't help but stare when the other wasn't looking.

They both tell themselves that they're being stupid, that it's nothing and the tight, fluttering feelings in their chests and stomachs would disappear eventually.

Eventually.

They set up long tables with magicked food and punch and Mrs. Anderson helps them conjure a DJ that starts to play Broadway tunes and Top 40 mixes in the ballroom that Kurt can't help but sway to.

It's when people start to arrive at the house as the sun goes down that they finally look at each other. Blaine crooks his lips upward into a tiny smile and takes Kurt's hand gently in his.

The Gryffindor does his best to introduce Kurt to everyone that filters through the front door, but there's a lot of them, and sometimes Blaine can't even remember their names. It's a mixture of family and friends, distant and close, Hogwarts students and neighbors, and Kurt can't help but feel entirely uncomfortable at the assortment of warm and cold smiles he was getting.

But Blaine's fingers are strong in his, holding them tightly, and it gives him a sense of calm.

Because somehow, Blaine had become home.

Kurt's heart drops somewhere near his navel and decides that he really can't do this to himself, so he retracts his hand from Blaine's and turns to get punch, or a cookie, or something, when –

"Kurt!"

There are arms, warm and awkward, wrapping around his shoulders and Kurt is lifted off the floor.

"Finn?" He looks up and meets a pair of big chocolate eyes. "What are you doing here?"

"I was invited! By Blaine!"

Kurt's feet are returned to the floor and his eyes return to Blaine's surprised face.

Of course. Invited by Blaine.

Because Blaine didn't love him.

Because they were pretend boyfriends, and Blaine was only doing the right thing by trying to help him.

Because Blaine didn't love him.

"You do not look very happy to see me," Finn pouts, interrupting his internal epiphany and heartbreak. Kurt tears his eyes from Blaine's face even as the Gryffindor opens his mouth to say something and dives in for another tight hug from his supposed crush. The Frankenteen gives a little laugh and hugs him back, holding him a little awkwardly, and then steps back. "So is there food? I'm starving."

Kurt purposefully avoids Blaine's hazel eyes as he takes Finn's hand in his own and forces out, "Of course! I'll show you!"

Finn looks a little surprised, but it's replaced by elation when Kurt stops a little short of the three long tables he'd helped Blaine set up earlier. He gives the Frankenteen a plate and ushers him down the room; he pretends not to notice when Blaine slips in and leans against the doorframe.

It would be easy, maybe, if Blaine hadn't been wearing that black sweater that hugged him in all the right places, or if his hair hadn't been free from gel, or if his hazel eyes hadn't been so bright.

But it isn't easy, and Finn notices.

"Are you guys okay?" His voice is low and he dips his head so the words move directly to Kurt's ear. "It seems like you're avoiding each other."

Kurt swallows and drops a cannoli onto Finn's plate without his permission. "I guess we've just been together for too long. 24/7 gets a little tiring, you know."

Finn nods. "I understand."

Kurt feels the familiar rush of affection for him, but it's platonic now. Brotherly, almost. He holds in a deep sigh as the Gryffindor takes a larger-than-anticipated bite out of the cannoli and sends a wide, cream-filled grin in Blaine's direction.

When Kurt shoots a little glance back at him, he finds the curly haired Anderson chatting amiably with a boy that looked oddly familiar.

"Who's that?" He asks Finn quietly, turning his back on the two as Blaine's eyes flick toward them.

Finn glances upward subtly and, around a mouthful of pastry, whispers, "Sebastian Smyth. From your house?"

Sebastian Smyth. Kurt's heart plummets for the second time that night. It was no secret that Sebastian was bad news, and if he was talking to Blaine…Well, it wouldn't be very long until the Gryffindor was being stripped in the back of the prefect bathroom.

Stripped.

Kurt's eyebrow twitches upward.

Blaine, without a shirt.

Blaine, with his head thrown back.

Blaine, the muscles in his back rippling as –

"Kurt?"

He jumps about ten feet and lifts a hand to his chest, feeling his heart beat rapidly against it. Finn's eyebrows are drawn together in concern, but he's still chewing slowly on his cannoli, so Kurt figures he hadn't read his mind somehow. "Sorry. Got distracted."

"Yeah, Smyth's bad news." Finn snorts angrily, picking up a cookie. "Blaine knows that, though. Smyth's been trying to get into his pants since fourth year."

Kurt's eyebrows jump up his forehead, and Finn feels the need to add, "With barely any success, too."

"Barely?"

"They…It was like…I mean, they went out, like, once. Blaine said he was getting way too handsy, so he left. It wasn't a big deal, I promise." Finn's chocolate eyes are anywhere but Kurt's; it's like he's broken some type of Bro-Code with Blaine by revealing this part of the Gryffindor that Kurt obviously hadn't known about.

The Slytherin glances toward the door and realizes that both Sebastian and Blaine have disappeared; he feels the sudden burn of white hot anger and takes Finn's free hand in his own again. "Come on; let's go check out the ballroom."

The classy, poised Anderson ballroom is a mess of cheap, shameful dancing. It's hot and there are lights everywhere, flashing and throbbing and it just adds to the sexy atmosphere. Kurt wrinkles his nose; it seems like every single teenager in the entire house had migrated to that room, all in order to rub against each other. Finn's brown eyes are huge as they sweep the room.

Kurt's immediately drawn to the rhythmic sway of a pair of jean-clad hips near the center of the room, hips that were being held onto by a pair of large, thin hands.

Finn leans down to ear level again. "I told you that he was bad news."

Blaine's thinking nearly the same thing, because god, Sebastian was still handsy. He was hot, sure, but his green eyes weren't nearly as beautiful as Kurt's, and his hands, every trying to control Blaine's moving hips, just felt wrong against him.

Not that he'd admit it, with Kurt standing so close to Finn in the doorway.

So he only kind of pushes Sebastian's hands away as they dip a little lower and only kind of backs up when the Slytherin tries to get closer to him.

When he looks back toward the doorway, Kurt is gone.

When he looks into the crowd, he finds the lithe body again.

Dancing with Finn.

Dancing with Finn, with his arms looped around the Frankteen's neck, lips near his ear, speaking quietly into it. Sebastian pulls him close just as Kurt laughs expressively at something Finn says and Blaine really just can't take it anymore.

Blaine's heart is somewhere near his knees, so he can't help himself from shoving Sebastian away from him hard.

He doesn't hear the boy curse at him, or call him a tease; all he can hear is the pounding of his own heart, all he can see is Kurt's marine eyes trained delightedly on Finn's dopey face, all he can feel is the throbbing of the bass drum in the soles of his shoes.

So when he grabs Kurt's arm and pulls him around, facing each other as both of their chests heave, it's no shocker that the boy looks surprised.

"What are you doing?" His breath ghosts lightly over Blaine's parted lips.

"Kissing you."

So he does, and it's like butterflies and fireworks and Kurt tastes just like Blaine remembers. Kurt's hand comes up to grasp at the back of his neck, pulling him close, deepening the kiss that somehow went from sweet to something harder, needier, dirtier.

There's a twist in Blaine's stomach because he knows that Kurt's doing it for show, for Finn's benefit, and that hurts.

He finds himself, suddenly, wanting all of Kurt.

Not just pretend-Kurt, not just mean -Kurt, not just cute-Kurt, not obsessed-with-Finn-Kurt.

All of him.

Every flaw, perfection, fear, dream, hope, emotion, everything.

But as the Slytherin pulls away, his forehead resting against Blaine's sweaty curls and their eyes meet, he knows that Kurt is not his to want. Not his to have, or hold, or even pine over.

There's something in Kurt's eyes, though; confusion, maybe, or even knowledge, like he knows.

But he doesn't know, because he whispers quietly, "Sebastian's looking over here. Do you want me to disappear for awhile?"

Like Blaine actually gives a shit about Sebastian.

So he swallows and smiles and says, "Yeah, thanks."

Finn's not even looking at him; he's staring directly at Kurt's face, almost in awe, like he's had some type of awkward epiphany about the Slytherin beside him.

So Blaine turns around, fixes his hair, and unwillingly engages Sebastian in another less-than-innocent dance in the middle of the ballroom, all while wishing Kurt was the one holding onto him, kissing his neck, wanting him.

Kurt tries to pretend like it doesn't matter.

Like the kiss hadn't left him breathless, aching, infatuated.

He pretends like he it doesn't bother him when Blaine turns that lopsided smile toward Sebastian instead of toward him, like it doesn't matter that Sebastian's literally all over Blaine.

He takes Finn's hand carefully in his own and drags him outside, to the garden, where they sit in the swings and talk for a long time.

They talk about school, and family, and love and hurt, and Kurt ends up falling asleep on Finn's chest as they try to locate the Little Dipper.

At least, he muses as his eyes start to droop, Finn manages to keep his mind of the person he'd really like to be talking to, falling asleep with, the one he'd like to be holding.

Special thanks to everyone who reviewed, especially ARandomFan91, who made me smile a lot. I would appreciate the whoring-out of this fan fic. :D

I appreciate every single one of those reviews; they seriously make my day. You guys are wonderful. Also, MERRY CHRISTMAS!

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